The best and most useful smart home tech I've seen at CES 2026

We’ve seen robot vacuums go upstairs before with a prototype carrier, but we’ve never seen a robot vacuum seemingly grow legs and climb stairs. The Roborock Saros Rover is a robot vacuum with wheel-legs, which unfold when the robot has to go upstairs. Imagine a person crouching, then straightening their legs to stand tall; this is what the Saros Rover looks like when its legs raise its body almost a foot off the ground.

After seeing the Rover in person, I’m even more impressed than I was when I first saw it on video and convinced that this is the best of CES in smart home tech. The robot’s wheel-leg architecture allows it to navigate up and down a staircase, stopping at each step to clean it. The Saros Rover can even tilt, crouch, and hop as needed to avoid obstacles. While the Saros Rover hasn’t been released yet, Roborock has confirmed it is developing it for launch.

The Lockin Veno Pro and Lockin V7 Max are fantastic smart locks that don’t require you to ever recharge or replace their batteries. Instead of using a removable battery, this lock uses Lockin AuraCharge, an external device that you plug in about four meters away. 

The AuraCharge is a transmitter that shoots an invisible light beam to your smart lock, continuously powering its battery.

The Lockin Veno Pro is a deadbolt smart lock, whereas the V7 Max is a Mortise lock, which is less common in the US than the former. The Veno Pro is expected to hit the market this year, with a retail price of around $350. 

Also: I just saw one of the coolest new smart locks in action at CES

The V7 Max has dual cameras and displays to also show you who’s at the door, and is planned for Q3 2026, but it’s expected to cost upward of $1,000.

I bet you’ve never seen a robot carpet cleaner, right? That’s because there are none — or there were none, now that Robotin is entering the market. The Robotin R2 is a modular robot carpet cleaner that can wash, scrub, and dry your carpets autonomously. On the modular side, this robot features a removable vacuum module that can be replaced with a carpet cleaner, enabling it to perform both vacuuming and carpet washing in a single operation.

Admittedly, this robot’s base station is quite large, as it needs to house the various modules and two clean water tanks to ensure it has sufficient water to complete its cleaning tasks. Unfortunately, there’s no set date for when the Robotin R2 will be released to the market, although it is currently in production. 

Google TV is introducing new generative AI features that are impressive enough to convince any Alexa user to switch to Google’s voice assistant. The new features include Dive Deeper, a Nano Banana model, and Veo, and will be available as a free OTA update to TCL Google TVs initially, but will also be accessible on the Google TV Streamer.

Aside from smart home control, your Google TV will also be able to edit your photos and create artwork and videos from them. I watched as Google demoed editing a photo of a woman and her dog at the beach to look like a cartoon, then asked Gemini to create a video of the woman playing fetch with the dog with the same cartoonish look.

Also: Your Google TV is getting several useful Gemini features soon – these models included

Gemini will also generate briefs for you to catch up on your favorite sports, complete with a new visual layout and even a narrator with a sportscaster voice.

The Navimow X4 is Segway’s newest flagship robot mower, announced at CES 2026. This powerful robot mower requires no RTK antenna or boundary wire; instead, it uses advanced technology that combines sensors, cameras, and LiDAR to navigate. The X4 also has an all-wheel drive (AWD) system that can handle inclines as steep as 84% or 40 degrees. 

The X4 robot mower features an entirely different design from its predecessor, departing from what had almost become Navimow’s signature rounded design. Instead, the Navimow X4 features the same racecar look that was popularized with the Mammotion Luba 2, a design that other brands, including Roborock, have since adopted. While the X4 can be expected to become available for purchase in Q2, we don’t have a set starting price for the robot. 

The Govee Ceiling Light Ultra is my favorite smart light of CES 2026. Govee is taking something that you wouldn’t think to look at twice (a ceiling light) and transforming it into a form of entertainment, ambiance, or attraction. Aside from offering a powerful 5,000lm, the Ceiling Light Ultra features a 616-pixel matrix that displays preset or AI-generated designs.

This could be used as a bright ceiling light for any room, with a white temperature range of 2,700K-6,500K. It could also serve as a customizable attraction in a business, thanks to pixel-level editing, or as a replacement for a light fixture in a child’s room. Govee hasn’t announced the launch date of the Ceiling Light Ultra, but it is expected to hit the market this year.

This new smart lock features UWB technology, allowing it to unlock wirelessly when someone with a compatible smartphone approaches the door from the outside. A set of sensors can detect when someone is walking from which direction, so the lock only opens when there’s a person walking directly to the door and not when they walk past it.  

While we’ve seen another UWB smart lock by Ultraloq (which is now available for purchase), the Aqara U400 is $30 cheaper, at $270, and also supports Apple Home Key and fingerprint recognition, unlike its competitor. 

This $50 device easily mounts on a window without the need for drilling and features two 2.5K cameras: an outward-facing one and another that faces inward into your house. The Botslab W101 Window Camera can detect when someone delivers a package, making it a suitable alternative to a video doorbell in homes where installation is not possible. This makes it an option for apartments and areas where extra visibility is needed, such as a patio door or window.

Though you can use the camera’s physical cover to disable the indoor-facing camera, having both cameras on a window where a pet likes to look could also offer a more fun use case. 

The new Narwal Flow 2 is expected to perform better than its predecessor, though the Narwal Flow was well received. Narwal is showcasing its new flagship robot vacuum and mop, featuring an outstanding 30,000Pa of suction power and a track mop that can apply 12N of downward pressure during cleaning.

The best part about the Flow 2 is probably its intelligence. This robot is smart enough to not only recognize objects on the floor, but also remind you of misplaced items or toys, and can even flag these on a map with a priority order. The robot vacuum uses AI to process its surroundings and can adjust its cleaning accordingly, such as decreasing the noise when cleaning near a crib.

Also: This robot vacuum at CES 2026 can find lost items on your floor and alert you of them

The Narwal Flow 2 is expected to launch in April 2026. Though pricing info hasn’t been announced, we can expect it to cost about the same as its predecessor, priced at $1,500.